Buzz Labs' unmanned vehicle blog and cool DIY remote controlled stuff blog. For techies by techies, maybe also some interesting tidbits about small business and international business.

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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

If the question is to use forced induction on a uav...

The answer is probably, "Hell Yeah!". I have been learning everything there is to know about practical, turbocharged-systems. So over the next few posts, I will hopefully generate a reasonable technical approach to safely turbocharge a 4-stroke Briggs and Stratton Animal engine or a Raptor. It depends on which one I can find and afford here in Central Europe.

We have found a few 1.5# turbos good for 3-4psi of boost. The mad scientist in me says that I think we can find some light super chargers and run them on a small electric motor for less weight. I know that the whole point of a turbocharger is more about recovering wasted energy in the exhaust system. However, I wonder if the weight/power generated ratio would be better served with a high efficiency electric motor. Since they are pretty amazing these days.

As I come up with some numbers for weights, and possible concepts, I will keep everyone in the loop.